Transversal subjects

About this book

Transversal Subjects: From Montaigne to Deleuze after Derrida proposes a combined theory of consciousness, subjectivity, and agency stemming from analyses of junctures in Western philosophical and critical discourses that have significantly influenced the development of present-day understandings of these terms and a number of concepts to which they often are or can be linked, including: perception, identity, desire, well-being, mimesis, aesthetics, literacy, education, performance, and human rights. An overarching argument of this book is that subjectivity can be positively defined as a manifestation of ongoing relations among affecters and enablers of transversal processes that individuals and groups can purposefully mobilize to guide and alter experiences. In contrast to standard narratives, Reynolds and his collaborators reveal a mappable history of this idea in the folds and interstices of Western intellectual history as they show how the theories and methodologies of transversal poetics are themselves its byproducts.